Apparatus for plying crimped yarn



Jan. 16, 1962 P. w. L,\NGWAY 3,0 77

APPARATUS FOR FLYING CRIMPED YARN Filed March 50, 1960 Inventor /w m AAA/6 4 Y,

Attorney United States Patent 3,916,677 APPARATUS FOR FLYING RIMPED YARN Paul W. Langway, Ciaymont, Del, assignor to Joseph Bancroft & Sons Co., Wilmington, Del., a corporation of Delaware Filed Mar. 30, 1960, Ser. No. 18,739 5 Claims. (Cl. 57-34) This invention relates to apparatus for plying a plurality of crimped yarn ends and more particularly to apparatus for plying such yarn ends as they are withdrawn from a core package.

An object of the invention is to provide novel and improved apparatus of the above type.

Another object is to provide apparatus for plying a plurality of ends as taken from a core package without the necessity for an intermediate winding and rewinding step.

Various other objects and advantages will be apparent as the nature of the invention is more fully disclosed.

In accordance with the present invention the ends are withdrawn from core packages of the type described in copending application Serial No. 861,001, filed December 21, 1959 in the form of a continuous core consisting of a mass of compacted, crimped filaments as discharged from a stuffer crimper. The core is confined by a tape and is wound onto a package in successive convolutions in a plurality of helical layers with the core held confined and compacted by the tape and with the cores of adjacent convolutions separated by the confining tape or tapes. Means is provided to withdraw the ends from the core packages under constant, controlled tension and feed the ends to a down twister of the ring twister type where they are plied and wound onto a spool or other package.

The invention will be better understood from the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which a specific embodiment has been set forth for purposes of illustration.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a front elevation of an apparatus for carrying out the invention; and

FIG. 2 is a rear elevation, on a larger scale, of a portion of the apparatus of FIG. 1.

Referring to the drawing more in detail, a core package 9 of the type above referred to, comprising a core 10 of crimped filaments or yarn wound with a confining tape 11 on a sleeve 12, is mounted on a spindle 13 attached to a frame 14. The yarn or end 15 in the core 10 is in the form of a highly compacted mass and contains V-shaped crimps of the type formed in a stutter crirnper which have been set by heat treatment or other processing. This end 15 is withdrawn from the core 10 through an eye 16 around a guide roll 17 and around a tension arm 18. The end 15 then passes around a guide roller 19 and a fixed guide rod 20 to feed rolls 21 which are driven at a constant rate. From the feed rolls 21 the end 15 passes through an eye 22 to the traveller 23 on a ring 24 of a standard ring twister 25 having a spindle 26 carrying a spool 27 on which the end 15 is wound. The spindle 26 is driven by a belt 28 in the usual manner.

The tape 11 is withdrawn from the package 9 through a guide 30 and an ironing and tensioning gate 31 onto a reel 32 carried on a shaft 33 which is driven by a motor 34.

The tension arm 18 is mounted on a lever 35 depending from a cross arm 36 carrying adjustable weight 33 at one end and a counterweight 39 at its other end and pivoted at 40 so that the arm 18 swings laterally in a slot 41 in the plate 14 to hold the end 15 under a tension which is determined by the position of the adjustable weight 38.

3,016,677 Patented Jan. 16, 1962 The counter weight 39 is adapted to engage an arm 44 which actuates a microswitch 45 when the arm 18 is shifted laterally due to an increased tension of the end 15. The microswitch 45 is connected by lines 46 to control the operation of the motor 34 so that the motor is energized to drive the reel 32 when the microswitch 45 is closed.

A second package 9a similar to the package 9 above described is mounted on a spindle 13a. The package 911 is composed of a core 10a and a confining tape 11a which is wound onto a reel 32a driven by a motor 34a. The end 15a is withdrawn from the core 10a through eye 16a, guide roll 17a, tension control arm 18a, guide roll 19a to rod 25 where it joins the end 15 and is fed by the feed rolls 21 to the ring twister 25. The tension control arm 18a actuates a microswitch 45a to control reel motor 34a. The elements which are duplicated for the unwinding of the end 15a have been given the same reference numerals as those above described with the suffix a and are not redescribed in detail. It is to be understood that additional core packages may be used and the resulting ends plied in the same manner. Two such packages have been shown for purposes of illustration only.

In the embodiment shown each end is withdrawn from the exposed end of the core package as the latter reaches a discharge point. The weights 38, 38a are so adjusted that both ends are maintained under the same tension as they are withdrawn from the respective cores by the feed rolls 21. As the end is withdrawn the core recedes from the discharge point, thereby increasing the tension of the end. This in turn shifts the arm 18 in a direction to close the microswitch 45 and start the reel motor 34. The tape is advanced by the motor and thus turns the core package on the spindle 13 to expose additional core at the discharge point. This decreases the tension on the end 15 and causes the arm 13 to open the microswitch 45. This action is repeated to unroll the tape at a rate to maintain a substantially constant tension on the ends 15, 15a as they are fed to the rolls 21. This tension is sufiicient to substantially, but not completely, pull out the crimp which has been placed in the ends in the crimper and to feed the ends to the ring twister in straightened condition.

It will be noted that the tape is unwound in a substantially horizontal direction from the bottom of the package. Hence at the point of discharge the core is disposed above the tape and any mass of yarn which might be pulled out from the core rests upon the tape and is supported thereby until it is removed by the normal feed of the yarn.

The ply twist is dependent upon the relative speeds of the feed rolls 21 and the spindle 26 of the ring twister 25. This may be controlled in the usual manner to obtain the desired ply twist. It is important to maintain the same uniform tension on all of the plied ends as they are withdrawn from the cores so that the ends will be plied with substantially the same stresses and with the crimp pulled out about equally. When such plied yarns are fabricated as by knitting or weaving and steamed or otherwise treated to remove the temporary straight set the original crimp is restored with a consequent contraction and bulking of the yarn. When the ends are plied under the same conditions of stress as above described the crimp tends to become uniform in the finished product and produces a uniform bulked effect.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for plying a plurality of ends of crimped continuous filaments directly from core packages in which said ends are in the form of a compacted mass of crimped filaments held confined by a tape and wound with said tape in the form of helical windings with adjacent convolutions of the core separated by said tape, which comprises means supporting a plurality of said core packages for unwinding, a tape reel mounted to receive the tape from each of said packages, means driving each of said reels to unwind the tape from the corresponding package and to expose said core at a discharge point, a driven feed roll and a twister, means feeding the ends from each of said cores to said feed roll, individual tension control means disposed to engage and be actuated by each of said ends in advance of said feed roll, means controlled by each of said tension control means to actuate the respective tape reels in a sense to withdraw tape from said packages at a rate to maintain a substantially constant tension on said ends as they are fed to said feed rolls, means feeding the combined ends from said feed roll to said twister for plying said ends into a yarn, said twistor having means winding said plied yarn onto a package.

2. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 in which said 4 twister is a ring twister and said ring twister and said feed rolls are driven at a fixed ratio.

3. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 in which a motor is connected to drive each of said tape reels and a microswitch is connected to control each of said motors and is actuated by the respective tension control means.

4. Apparatus as set forth in claim 3 in which said tension control means includes a pivoted arm having an adjustable weight for varying the tension to be maintained thereby.

5. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 in which the package is mounted to rotate about a horizontal axis and the tape is unwound from the underside of the package whereby the core is supported by the tape as it passes the point of discharge.

No references cited. 

